CLU educator to receive Scandinavian recognition

Fred Tonsing has done extensive research on Scandinavian culture, going back to the Vikings, according to a board member for the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation, which plans to give the award.

David K. Yamamoto / Special to The Star

Fred Tonsing, a former professor of Greek and religion studies at California Lutheran University, is slated to be named Outstanding Scandinavian American of 2010 on Feb. 28.

Interests: Reading, art, travel and music, including playing a harpsichord that he built.

Fred Tonsing has counted, and he figures he's taught 6,500 students during his career as a professor of religion and Greek at California Lutheran University.

That's just the sort of thing Tonsing, a scholar and storyteller at heart, would do. He's researched everything from his own family's Swedish background to CLU's history, recording countless stories along the way.

"History is story, and it's something you must do in the classroom to relate to students," said Tonsing, 72. "Dates, places and facts get mixed up. If you can remember the story, all the facts fit in."

Tonsing will be recognized as Outstanding Scandinavian American of 2010 on Feb. 28 at CLU. The event will be at 2 p.m. in the Lundring Events Center on the Thousand Oaks campus. Tonsing has done extensive research on Scandinavian culture, going back to the Vikings, said Siri Eliason, a board member for the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation, which is giving the award.

"He can write about anything that comes up in Scandinavian history," Eliason said, "and he writes in a very nice way, also."

Tonsing came to CLU from UC Santa Barbara in 1974, when the university was still "in the middle of nowhere," he said. Since then, he's taught world religions, the Old and New Testaments, early Christian art, Greek and a freshman tutorial in the humanities.

"One had to teach everything," he said. "I think that's why they wanted me to be here, because I could be very flexible."

And he's led students on 24 trips to Greece, where they've also explored Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. With another professor, he's led trips to South America, too, going to Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

"So many of these students had never been out of Southern California," he said. "We introduced them to other cultures. We Americans are isolated."

In some cases, those trips have changed students' lives. One student, a football player, fell in love with Arabic and went on to become a television reporter for the Middle East Broadcasting Corp. and is now head of CNBC in Dubai, Tonsing said. Another, who was majoring in business, shifted to art and became a professor, leading students on trips to Rome.

The Rev. Paul Wenz was one of Tonsing's students in the late 1980s. After his sophomore year, Wenz went on an archaeological dig in Israel, having researched sites with Tonsing. He describes it as one of the best experiences of his life, a trip that inspired him to travel later in Korea, Japan and Central America.

"His encouragement and his love for travel is kind of infectious," Wenz said. "I kind of caught that travel bug."

Before becoming a professor, Tonsing served in the Navy and was a minister in Portland, Ore. He retired from CLU in 2003 but has continued researching and writing. He's produced a guide to the Scandinavian Center near CLU, and now he's working on a biography of his great-grandfather, John Alexander Martin, a newspaper editor who went on to be elected governor of Kansas. He's also fond of telling stories about his family's connection to Amelia Earhart, who used to baby-sit for Tonsing's father. Earhart's mother was a cousin to Tonsing's grandmother.

As a teenager, Tonsing contracted polio, an experience he believes helped him develop resilience and determination. He became faint while playing football, then went into a coma for 10 days.

Doctors eventually realized he'd also suffered a stroke. It took Tonsing months to learn to walk again, and he still has a slight limp when he walks. But he's climbed Mount Hood and Mount Whitney almost to the top, and he used to surf along the Oregon coast without a wet suit.